Alabama Woman Shoots Home Intruder to Protect Herself and Her Ax- and Knife-Wielding Daughters

"I knew when he stepped on the landing that I would have to shoot him."

An Alabama woman said she was forced to shoot an intruder that broke into her home this week in order to protect herself and her daughters.

Martha Lewis of Dora, Ala. told WVTM-TV it was about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning when she heard a loud noise, which turned out to be someone kicking in her door. Lewis said she called the police and grabbed her gun, then went to her daughters' room and told them each to get something to defend themselves with. She said one grabbed an ax and one got a butcher knife.

They were at the top of the stairs when they saw a man standing there at the bottom.

"I knew when he stepped on the landing that I would have to shoot him," Lewis told the station. "He starts like coming up the stairs and he said, 'would you shoot me?' And I said 'I don't want to have to but I will.'"

Ignoring her warnings, the man kept coming -- and that's when Lewis said she fired.

"It wasn't like, oh can I pull the trigger? It was like when should I shoot? When will he be close enough that I know I won't miss him? That's one of the things that was going through my mind," she said.

The man stumbled outside into the yard where police found him, WVTM reported. Police said he's 25-year-old Michael Jacobs and was hospitalized in stable condition.

Lewis told the station one of the responding police officers said it would have been a different situation if she hadn't been armed.

"One of them said we would be writing up a different report if she had not had that gun," Lewis said.

Police said Lewis will not be charged for shooting the suspect. He faces charges of burglary and criminal mischief as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to WVTM.

Lewis said she's had the gun for about three years but only for protection purposes.

"There's so much talk about banning guns and gun control but they're for protection," she said. "There's no way that I could have fought him off."